Click here to view the embedded video.<\/em><\/a><\/p>\nIt\u2019s no surprise that Nursing major Quibilah Mui plans to attend nursing school after graduating from BMCC this spring. So what\u2019s she doing in Prof. Diane Dowling\u2019s Acting I course?<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s simple,\u201d she explains. \u201cIn nursing, there\u2019s absolutely no room for error\u2014you need to be totally focused and serious 24\/7. But acting frees me to be flexible and creative. What I love about it is that there is no structured set of rules.\u201d But that\u2019s not to overlook some essential similarities between acting and nursing. \u201cTo succeed in either field, you have to be open as well as willing to listen,\u201d Mui says. \u201cAnd you\u2019re always working as part of a team.\u201d<\/p>\n
Becoming more comfortable with people
\nFor Mui\u2019s classmate Sarah Hall, acting is likewise a departure from the familiar. A second year Liberal Arts major, Hall studied to become a massage therapist before entering BMCC and plans to go on to graduate school in physical therapy. Acting would seem to have little to do with her career plans. \u201cBut I\u2019ve always been interested in acting,\u201d she says. \u201cI\u2019m finding that Prof. Dowling\u2019s course is helping me become more comfortable with people and more open.\u201d<\/p>\n
In a recent session of Acting I, Hall and Liberal Arts major Chelsie Sands were one of several two-person acting teams who prepared dramatic scenes and performed them in front of the class. The play they chose: Oscar Wilde\u2019s 1895 comedy, The Importance of Being Earnest. \u201cI\u2019d originally planned to major in English literature,\u201d Sands says. \u201cBut I\u2019ve always been intrigued by the theater\u2014so, when I saw that this course was open, I took it\u2014and have since decided to pursue acting.\u201d<\/p>\n
While Acting I appeals to students across a wide range of academic disciplines and professional aspirations, the class also includes several bona fide Theater majors\u2014like Sung Guk Bae, who acted out a scene with Quibilah Mui from The Wash, by American dramatist Philip Kan Gotanda.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019m from South Korea and never imagined I\u2019d study acting until two years ago, when I was inspired by a musical I saw,\u201d he recalls. Deciding to pursue his career in America, he wound up at BMCC. \u201cI\u2019m crazy about the theater,\u201d he says, \u201calthough what I\u2019m primarily interested in now is directing and stage management.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019m tired of working\u201d
\nIn a scene from August Wilson\u2019s Joe Turner\u2019s Come and Gone, Theater major Darnale W.J. Gaines told his acting partner, Eva Charlery, that he was glad to have been fired from his last job. \u201cI\u2019m tired of working anyway,\u201d he said. It was an ironic declaration from a student who has maintained a 3.89 GPA since arriving at BMCC last fall. \u201cGrowing up, I was always the class clown,\u201d he says. \u201cI guess I liked the attention, but I never really saw theater as my thing until I was cast in a high school play. When I got to BMCC, I decided I would study theater and try to sharpen my acting skills.\u201d<\/p>\n
In contrast, Charlery, who is majoring in writing and literature, has no plans to pursue an acting career. \u201cI\u2019m a shy person, and the class has pulled me out of myself,\u201d she says. \u201cActing was scary at first, but I think I\u2019m getting better at it. I love being in front of people and having them see the true me.\u201d<\/p>\n
However, \u201cshy\u201d is the last adjective Rashad Blake would ever apply to himself. \u201cWhen I was little, I\u2019d do mischievous things and then turn to my mother with an innocent face and say, \u2018Mommy, it wasn\u2019t me.\u2019 My mother would always say, \u2018Rashad, you should become an actor.\u2019\u201d And so he did\u2014watching movies as an adolescent, studying the way actors moved and delivered their lines, and trying to mimic them. \u201cWhen I saw that BMCC offered an acting class, I jumped at the opportunity,\u201d he says.<\/p>\n
Building confidence
\nIrvin Gil and Candice Tice selected a scene from August Wilson\u2019s The Piano Lesson. \u201cExcept for a bit of acting in high school, this has been a new experience for me,\u201d says Tice, a Human Services major. \u201cI took a speech course last semester and my teacher suggested that studying acting would help me build my confidence and learn how to speak in front of people. It has definitely done that.\u201d<\/p>\n
Gil, who is majoring in writing and literature, says the course has given him a greater appreciation of the actor\u2019s craft. \u201cIt\u2019s not just about memorizing lines,\u201d he says. \u201cNow when I read anything, I try to listen for the beats and rhythm in the words.\u201d<\/p>\n
For Prof. Dowling, teaching Acting I has been personally and professionally rewarding. \u201cOver the course of the semester I get to watch students grow\u2014both in relation to each other and in their understanding of themselves,\u201d she says. \u201cIt is tremendously gratifying to see a shy student break out of her shell\u2014to gain confidence by putting herself across and learning how to express herself\u2014even if it\u2019s behind the mask of a character. Pretending to do it makes it easier to do it in real life.\u201d<\/p>\n
Many people erroneously assume that taking an acting class is just about fun, Dowling says. \u201cIt is immensely enjoyable,\u201d she acknowledges. \u201cBut the confidence students gain here, and the techniques they learn\u2014about using their voice and body to express themselves\u2014is integral to their development as college students and to what college has to offer.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Click here to view the embedded video. It\u2019s no surprise that Nursing major Quibilah Mui plans to attend nursing school after graduating from BMCC this spring. So what\u2019s she doing in Prof. Diane Dowling\u2019s Acting I course? \u201cIt\u2019s simple,\u201d she explains. \u201cIn nursing, there\u2019s absolutely no room for error\u2014you need to be totally focused and […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[7],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-271089","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/271089","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=271089"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/271089\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=271089"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=271089"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=271089"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}